Category: Faith

Blaming God When Bad Things Happen

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

I can’t even begin to fathom the grief and the horror the people living in Aurora, Colorado have experienced this past week. 

I only know people are hurting. People are devastated. People are angry. And my heart breaks for what they are enduring.

A woman named Marie was there, in theater nine. With her two teenage daughters. She heard the gunshots and the screaming and the terror. She covered her daughters and when the firing slowed, she took her family and ran for the exit.

The next day, she wrote a blog post entitled So You Still Think God is a Merciful God? 

Her answer: Yes. 

God is still merciful and good.

I resonated with this post, because I have loved ones in my life who struggle with this concept. Oh man, do they struggle.

Something bad or senseless happens and they want nothing to do with God.

And I can’t help but think….

How quick we all are to spit on the hand that’s offering to pull us out of the pit, as if that hand is the one that pushed us there. 

I’m not sure any of us realize what a horrifying, terrifying place this world would be if God removed His grace. 

He isn’t the enemy. 

God doesn’t dig these dark, desperate holes. He’s not the one pushing us in them.

The brokenness of this world, the brokenness inside every human heart – this is what makes the pit. These are what push us in.

And God sees His beloved creation desperately trying to claw their way out, incapable of escaping on their own. So in His infinite mercy, He reaches out His hand, in the form of Jesus Christ, and becomes the rescue we can’t be for ourselves.

Jesus doesn’t promise safety or health or prosperity in this world. Any Christian who tells you that hasn’t read the Bible. 

But He does promise hope and this is a hope that brokenness and evil and destruction cannot touch. 

One day, death and the powers of darkness will be defeated and all things will be made new.

Until then…

I pray for healing for those who are hurting.

I pray that God can take the senseless hate in the world and bring beauty from the pain.

I pray that God can use what the enemy intends for destruction to glorify and magnify His name.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.                    -Ephesians 3:20-21

Let’s Talk: Do you struggle with the concept of a loving God when bad things happen?

The Still Small Voice

Posted on by Katie Ganshert

It is with great honor that I introduce you to our guest blogger today – debut novelist and historical romance writer, Keli Gwyn. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Keli for a couple years now and all I can say is she is one of the kindest, most sincere, encouraging, supportive people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing.

So it was with great anticipation that I opened up her debut novel, A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California. I knew I’d support Keli regardless of how I liked the book, because she’s just that amazing of a person. What an added bonus that her novel grabbed me right away!

I started this week and already I’m invested in the characters and excited to find out what happens to Elenora and her adorable daughter, Tildy. If you love romance, if you love historicals, if you love Christian fiction, if you love supporting really awesome people, if you want to give this author an amazing belated birthday present (her birthday was yesterday) then get thee to a book store and buy this book. Or you can buy it right now on Amazon.  

The Still Small Voice

By Keli Gwyn

Do you hear voices in your head? I do.

I’m a writer, and my characters talk to me all the time.

I know some who hear a different Voice, that of the Lord. I used to battle—dare I, a professing follower or Christ admit this?—a twinge of jealousy when people would talk about how He talked to them regularly. They spoke of a still, small voice, but I’d never heard Him speak to me that way and would have been happy with a barely audible whisper.

Imagine my surprise when I sat in church one day five years ago, intent upon the sermon, and heard the Lord speak to me. Loudly and clearly. So loudly, in fact, that the Lord’s voice drowned out Pastor Randy. Since he’s a real sanguine who preaches with passion—and volume—that’s saying something.

I’d been writing for a year or so and had grown a bit downhearted. I’d prayed about it, surrendering my discouragement to the Lord and asking for His guidance.

There I sat in my customary spot in the third row, second chair from the aisle, on the left side of the sanctuary, when all of a sudden I heard God talking to me. His Voice came from above, very near the spotlight to the left of the lectern.

I knew the Lord was talking to me, because of what He said: “You will be published…in my time.” When I heard that, I was able to relax. I released my expectations and focused on enjoying each step in my journey.

That experience showed me that the Lord is there all the time and can use whatever means He wants to communicate with us.

Being a writer, I got to thinking about the story I was writing at the time, the one that—five years and three major rewrites later—has become my debut novel, A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California.

As Elenora’s story evolved, my struggle to have the Lord commune with me in a clearly distinguishable way became hers. Unlike me, Elenora was raised by a controlling father and had a hard time feeling close to the Lord as a result. While she wants to feel His presence and feel close to Him, she doesn’t.

Taking Elenora on her spiritual journey was exciting. The Lord does speak to her at one point, but not in the same way He did me. That scene, when she experiences the presence of God for the first time, is one of my favorites.

My experience hearing the Lord’s voice so distinctly hasn’t happened again, but I’ve learned to recognize His presence in other ways. Should He choose to use an audible message once more, I can say with certainty that I would listen and heed His words—even if He did whisper.

 Let’s Talk: Have you experienced the Lord’s presence in a unmistakable way?

One random commenter will win a signed copy of Keli’s amazing debut novel, A Bride Opens Shop in El Dorado, California. So please don’t be shy!

To learn more about Keli, please go visit her fabulous website!